Can I Use My Amazon Account on European Stores? (Full Guide)

Short answer: yes. The same Amazon account you use on your home marketplace works on every other Amazon European marketplace — no separate registration, no VPN, no customs hassle. This guide explains how the unified account actually works, what carries over and what doesn't, and the small handful of edge cases worth knowing.

The TL;DR

One account, all European marketplaces. Your existing Amazon login works on Amazon.de, .fr, .it, .es, .co.uk, .nl, .se, .be, .ie.
Same payment methods. Cards, gift card balance, Amazon Pay — all carry over.
Same Prime membership. If you have Prime, it's valid for free shipping on all EU marketplaces (with some exceptions on bulky items).
No VPN, no customs. Inside the EU, goods circulate freely. UK orders post-Brexit collect import VAT at checkout but require no paperwork from you.
Same return rights. 30 days, automated return label, Amazon-paid return shipping.

How the unified account actually works

Amazon has nine separate European storefronts but one shared customer database. When you log in to a different marketplace, Amazon recognises you, shows your saved addresses, your payment methods, your wish lists and your order history. The interface translates to the local language by default but you can switch back to English (or your preferred language) in the footer.

Behind the scenes, each marketplace has its own catalog and pricing engine — but your account is shared. That's why you can switch from Amazon.de to Amazon.fr mid-session and still see "Hello, [Name]" with your French address loaded.

What carries over between marketplaces

Item	Carries over?
Email and password	Yes
Saved delivery addresses	Yes
Saved payment methods (cards, Amazon Pay)	Yes
Prime membership (free shipping)	Yes — across all EU stores
Order history (per marketplace)	Visible from any marketplace under "Your Orders"
Reviews and ratings you've written	Per-marketplace; not synced
Wish lists	Per-marketplace; not synced
Gift card balance	Per-marketplace; not transferable
Subscribe & Save subscriptions	Per-marketplace
Audible / Kindle library	Yes — synced via your Amazon account

The most common gotcha: gift card balances stay on the marketplace they were redeemed on. If you redeem a gift card on Amazon.de, that balance is only spendable on Amazon.de. The card itself can usually only be redeemed in its country of origin.

Prime across European marketplaces

This is where the unified account pays off most. Your Prime membership applies to free standard delivery on every EU Amazon marketplace, on most items. So a UK Prime member ordering from Amazon.de gets free delivery to the UK on Prime-eligible items. A French Prime member ordering from Amazon.it gets free delivery to France.

Caveats:

Some bulky/heavy items show a delivery surcharge on cross-border Prime orders
Same-day or next-day delivery is usually only offered on the local marketplace
Prime Video catalog varies per country (geo-licensing) but you keep your subscription

What about customs and import duties?

Inside the EU, none. Period. Belgium to Italy, France to Germany, Spain to Netherlands — all treated as domestic from a customs standpoint. No declaration, no fees, no paperwork.

The post-Brexit UK is the only edge case for EU customers. Orders from Amazon.co.uk to an EU address now have import VAT collected by Amazon at checkout (so the price you see is the price you pay). No customs duty applies on most consumer goods thanks to the EU-UK trade agreement, but the VAT collection adds 19–25% to the UK list price depending on your destination country.

Going the other way (UK customer ordering from Amazon.de or Amazon.fr), the same import VAT applies — collected by Amazon, no customs paperwork required.

Do I need a VPN?

No. Amazon doesn't geo-block its European marketplaces. You can browse Amazon.de from London, place an order on Amazon.es from Berlin, ship to a French address from any IP — all without a VPN. Geographic restrictions only apply to digital content (Prime Video catalogs, certain Kindle titles) where licensing is country-specific.

Returning a cross-border order

The process is identical to a domestic return:

Go to "Your Orders"
Click "Return or replace items"
Print the return label generated automatically (it routes to the right country)
Drop off at a local pickup point (DHL, La Poste, Correos, etc., depending on your country)

30-day return window, Amazon-paid return shipping in nearly all cases. Same statutory 2-year EU warranty applies.

The interface language

By default, Amazon.de shows in German, Amazon.it in Italian, etc. To switch:

Scroll to the footer of any Amazon marketplace
Find the language selector (usually next to the country/currency selector)
Pick English (or your preferred language) — the entire interface translates

Product descriptions for individual listings stay in their native language unless the seller has uploaded translations. The browser's translate feature handles this fine for most listings.

Practical workflow for cross-marketplace shopping

The friction-light approach:

Find the product you want (on any marketplace, or via a search)
Paste the URL into the Zonscope comparator to see the live price across all nine European marketplaces, currency-converted
Click the affiliate link to the cheapest one
Log in with your existing Amazon account (already saved in the browser usually)
Check out as normal

Total time: under a minute. Typical savings on a €200+ purchase: €20–€60.

Bottom line

One Amazon account, nine European storefronts, zero new sign-ups, zero customs paperwork inside the EU. The infrastructure is genuinely seamless — most shoppers just don't realise it because they default to their home marketplace by habit. Once you know the cross-border flow works identically, comparing prices across all nine marketplaces becomes a default checkout step rather than an exotic operation.